Economics, Law and Individual Rights

This book brings together for the first time the emerging literature that employs economics to analyze the implications of constitutional protections of individual rights and freedoms, including freedom of speech and of the press, the right to bear arms, the right against unreasonable search, the right against self-incrimination, the right to trial by jury, and the right against cruel or unusual punishment.

Several of the papers included in the book employ economic theory to analyze the efficiency of policies related to the constitutional protections, and others formulate empirical models to estimate the effects of these policies on observable outcomes. Many of the results are immediately relevant to current debate and policy-making. Contributors include Sendhil Mullainathan, Albert Breton and Daniel Seidmann.